TAMPA, FLA. (WSVN) - When her cheer team didn’t show up, she stepped up for an unforgettable solo performance.
Eight-year-old Peyton Thorsby is used to being pushed up in the air by her teammates. But she can rise to the occasion on her own.
“I was scared about everything, and I was very, um, nervous,” Thorsby said.
She was nervous because she had to step up and take the floor by herself.
Thorsby’s mother, Nicole Thorsby, said they arrived to the Showcases of Championships Cheer Competition at the Florida State Fairgrounds near Tampa at 6 a.m.
But when they got there, the rest of the K-Tech Krakens team was nowhere to be found.
“Nobody had, you know, had come, for whatever reasons they had, and it ended up just being her that had shown up,” Nicole said.
“And her coach, Nikki, said ‘It looks like we might have to forfeit,'” said Chuck Thorsby, Peyton’s father.
But Thorsby already put in the work at practice, and despite her team being absent, she said she didn’t want to let them down.
“I didn’t really want my team to be disappointed of me, of not going out there and showing up for them, and so I made my decision,” she said. “I wanted to go out there, and I want to make my family proud and all my friends proud for myself.”
So she cheered all alone, carrying her team through the competition with a solo performance that didn’t miss a beat, captivating the crowd and charming the judges.
“I was actually shocked about myself. I didn’t really know, like, could I do it by myself,” Thorsby said.
Her routine snatched up the first place trophy.
“Me and her coaches, just crying our eyes out. Like, I just, I couldn’t believe it,” Nicole said. “To see her out there. She’s doing her thing. She’s, she’s amazing.”
Peyton hopes her performance inspires other kids to know not to be afraid.
“Jesus tells me to go out there and be brave, so I’ve been brave, and I got the trophy,” Thorsby said.
Thorsby’s team took to Facebook and said they couldn’t be any more proud.
It’s still unclear why the rest of the team was a no-show.
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